


asleep in the arms of the slow-swinging sea

by inmylife



Category: Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: (i think? i hope so), Canon Compliant, Families of Choice, Gen, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:40:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28340286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inmylife/pseuds/inmylife
Summary: “Thanks for, um. For letting me stay here.”There is an odd kind of vulnerability in Pete’s voice, one that Kingston has heard from other people who’ve stayed over before but never really from him. Kingston supposes that this was probably inevitable.“It’s no trouble, Pete,” he says. “No more trouble than being Vox Populi, anyway.”
Relationships: Kingston Brown & Pete the Plug
Comments: 6
Kudos: 55
Collections: D20 Gift Exchange 2020





	asleep in the arms of the slow-swinging sea

**Author's Note:**

  * For [constantlag](https://archiveofourown.org/users/constantlag/gifts).



> Written for D20 Exchange 2020. Happy holidays, Tiff! You asked for Pete and Kingston spending time together, so here's a little scene after Kingston's family's Christmas celebration in TUC1. Hope you like it! 
> 
> the title is from [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKrsDN91WgY) \- yes, technically "the seal lullaby" is just a poem but i really associate this setting of it with, like, parental feelings, so this has been playing in the back of my head while i was working on this.

Kingston walks into the kitchen only to find that someone - his mother, no doubt, or maybe a distant cousin - had already done the dishes. Kingston hadn’t expected to do a  _ lot  _ of dishes, seeing as most of the cooking had been done in his parents’ home, but people had been eating and merrymaking on all levels of the Brown home, so he’d resigned himself to the inevitability of doing  _ some _ . It’s past midnight, and he hadn’t been looking forward to this. He’s pleased to find that he doesn’t have to. 

God, Kingston’s ready to go to sleep. He’s an extrovert, sure - kind of has to be, given his day job and his magical one. But this many people, for so long? He’s exhausted. He figures Pete - 

Right. Where  _ is _ Pete? 

The door to the kid’s room is cracked open, and the room is empty. Kingston checks the couch, the kitchen, another bedroom, Pete’s room again, with fear building in his stomach all the while. He’d thought he and Pete had talked through the whole “Kingston had been willing to off Pete to save New York” thing, but… it’s possible that Pete isn’t over it and that he’s run off somewhere. It’s Christmas in New York and it’s cold, and Kingston hopes to god that Pete’s alright. 

It takes him ten minutes to realize that Pete’s probably in the bathroom, and another three to figure out that if Pete’s been in the bathroom for this long and Kingston hasn’t heard the shower running then maybe something’s up. 

He knocks. “Pete.” 

Silence.

“Pete. I just want to know if you’re alright.” 

Still no response, but Kingston hears rough, shaky breathing from the other side of the door. 

“I can hear you in there, you know.” 

“I’m  _ fine _ ,” Pete says, but his voice cracks, and Kingston hears him huff in frustration. 

Kingston sighs. “Pete, are you decent?”

“...Yeah.” 

“Can I open the door?” 

“Fine.” 

Kingston opens the door to the bathroom, and sure enough he sees Pete there, sitting on the sink counter, knees pulled tight to his chest. He looks exhausted. 

“Please tell me what’s going on,” Kingston sighs. 

Pete doesn’t look at him. “It’s just,” he says, “that was. That was a lot of people. And it’s been a while since I-”

He cuts himself off. Kingston waits. 

“It’s just weird, you know?” Pete says finally, looking up. “The past three years I didn’t really do anything like this for the holidays. And before that, with my family, it was - well.” Kingston nods. “I just needed some space.” 

“Well, everyone’s gone now,” Kingston tells him after a moment. “That doesn’t look very comfortable, so if you’d like to be tired someplace else…” 

“Yeah, sure,” Pete sighs, swinging his legs down and hopping neatly onto the tiled floor. He follows Kingston out into the front room and flops down on the couch. 

“You sure you don’t wanna go to bed?” Kingston asks. 

“No,” Pete mumbles into the couch cushions. “Not ready for today to be over yet.”

Kingston eyes him. “...I thought you were tired.” 

“Not that kind of tired.”

Kingston only understands what Pete means a little bit, but he shrugs. “Okay. Fine. I’m just gonna… put something on the TV, then,” says Kingston. 

There’s nothing really airing except for the usual reruns of  _ It’s a Wonderful Life _ and  _ Home Alone _ , both of which Kingston has seen a few times too many, so he switches the TV over to some shopping channel instead. Well, maybe it’s not properly a shopping channel, but it’s running an infomercial that looks particularly long. Kingston suspects Pete, despite his protests, really is going to fall asleep soon and anything that Kingston turns on will be just background noise. 

Pete shifts on the couch so he’s facing up. “Kingston,” he says. 

“Mm?” Kingston turns. He’d been halfway to his bedroom - Pete might want to lie on the couch and stare at whatever sort of blender gets advertised at midnight on Christmas, but Kingston was ready to sleep. 

“Thanks for, um. For letting me stay here.” 

There is an odd kind of vulnerability in Pete’s voice, one that Kingston has heard from other people who’ve stayed over before but never really from him. Kingston supposes that this was probably inevitable. 

“It’s no trouble, Pete,” he says. “No more trouble than being Vox Populi, anyway.” 

Kingston waits there for a moment. Then another - longer than most meaningful emotional moments usually take. He walks back closer to the couch and - oh. Pete’s asleep, now. Kingston smiles - the kid just looks so  _ peaceful _ like that. None of the stress from being Vox Phantasma (or from just being Pete) is present there, with his eyes closed and breathing even. 

If Kingston were a younger man, he’d pick Pete up and carry him back to his bed instead of leaving him on the couch. But Kingston is no longer young and the door to Pete’s room likes to stick, anyways, and needs a little extra effort to open. So, instead, it’s enough for him to dig out a couple of blankets (courtesy of his mother) from the chest next to the couch, to spread them over Pete one by one. 

He feels oddly paternal, doing this. It occurs to him, briefly - in a flash that sends a stab through his heart - that if things had worked out between him and Liz it might be his own child he’d be covering up on the couch. It’s not the first time Kingston has thought this, of course. Over the years he’s had all sorts of strays in his apartment, wide-eyed teenagers and every kind of elemental he could think of and exhausted women leaving their husbands and, one memorable time, a coworker who’d gotten too drunk after a long shift to remember her own address. The younger ones he always feels some kind of fatherly affection towards. 

Pete’s different, though. Because he’s a Vox. Because as much as there are things about Pete that Kingston will never understand, as much as there are things about Kingston that Pete will never understand, they share this one thing together that no one else can ever come close to comprehending. Not Esther, not Alejandro, not anyone. Only Kingston and Pete know what it is like to carry the magic of an entire city on their shoulders. And if Kingston feels protective over the kid, then so what. 

He wishes he’d had someone to guide him through this when he’d first been given the title of Vox Populi. Kingston and Pete have very different kinds of magic - it’s the weight of the title, more like. Kingston had had to learn very quickly how to speak for all of New York City at once, and he had had to learn it alone. Who was he supposed to have asked, the mayor? 

But Pete has Kingston. Pete has him. The kid doesn’t have to go it alone. 

Kingston realizes that he’s been standing over the couch for maybe a little while longer than necessary. Yeah, alright. Time to go to bed. He takes one last look at Pete on the couch, and turns, and goes to his room for the night. 

**Author's Note:**

> i'm on [tumblr](https://deep-hearts-core.tumblr.com/), come say hi!


End file.
